Barossa Airshow shots

[DanW]

First time I've gone to an airshow with a DSLR, C&C most welcome.

High speed pass:


Just after takeoff:


Some formation work:


75% scale Spitfire:


Tried keeping the shutter open as long as possible to get the nice propeller blur. All shots were done at F11, 1/125th or 1/160th, D90 with a Tamron 70-200 2.8 and polariser. Unfortunately this didn't give me quite enough reach and so I've had to crop them a bit.

I'll need to keep practising more - took 400 shots and only a handful come out sharp. Any hints to improve the hit ratio? Is this something where a VR lens would be better?

Cheers.

p.s. Also learned an important lesson - in a moment of brain fade, I put the 70-200 in my bag but forgot to zip it up. Threw the bag over my shoulder, lens went flying, hit the dirt from about 1.5m and I said some choice words. Good news is the lens hood seems to have cushioned the impact and the lens itself appears to be functioning normally. The soft ground probably helped too. Anyway, lesson learned.

[aim54x]

Very sorry to hear about the flying Tamron, how have you found that lens? I was very tempted to buy it before I got my 70-200VR.

Nice work, really like #2 as it does not have a distracting background like #1 and #4.

Do you know what powers that 75% scale Spitfire??

[DanW]

Do you know what powers that 75% scale Spitfire??

I think the announcer said it was an Isuzu V6 (car) engine! To be honest, the plane looked a bit odd sitting on the ground as, even accounting for the scale, the prop this engine drives is very small in comparison to what you see on a normal Spitfire. I'm not sure how they define "scale" but if its length, width and height are all 75% of the original, at a rough guess, its volume would be just a bit more than 40% of the original (0.75 cubed). So I'm guessing the Isuzu only needs to give about 40% of the power a V12 Merlin would. I'm making a lot of assumptions here so if anyone knows more, feel free to correct me. Regardless, once it was up in the air, it looked great.

Very much enjoying the Tamron. When I bought it last year, much as I wanted the Nikon version, I just couldn't justify the extra $1500. I think of this lens as giving me 2/3 of what the Nikon would for 2/5 the price. It's sharp enough that on the full size version of shot #2, you can read the instruments.

[CraigVTR]

Getting shrp shots of high speed object is not easy when you have a slow shutter speed, but you have done well with these. The last shot is great, depite the background which you could most likely remove with pp, you have nailed a perfect exposure.

The way to improve the hit rate is practice.